Wednesday, 25 January 2017

LESS TALK, MORE ACTION FOR DEMOCRACY

Introduce
sanctions and boycotts against the repressive Swazi regime and help the
democratic movement with everything from legal assistance to torture
counselling, organizational skills and information dissemination, says a young
Swazi activist, writes
Kenworthy News Media.

Stories
of incredible hardship, suffering and lack of democratic rights often overflow
our social media feeds and are ever-present in our newspapers and on radio and
TV.

But many
of the articles, campaigns and reports we read, hear and see fail to pinpoint
the reasons for these hardships. And even fewer offer credible solutions to how
we can act to bring about positive and democratic change in the societies that
they describe.

Young
Swazi activist Bheki Dlamini wants to break this mould and present governments,
organisations and individuals around the world with a set of concrete options
for helping the democratic movement and the people of his native Swaziland
attain democracy and socio-economic justice.

Torture,
prison and exile
Bheki Dlamini is 33 years old. He was born in the tiny absolute monarchy of
Swaziland where the King rules like a 17th century monarch.

A country
that ranks amongst the most unequal in the world, where anyone can be charged
with terrorism for wearing a political t-shirt or chanting a political slogan.
And a country that is amongst the most unequal in the world, where two thirds
of the population live in chronical poverty and over 20 percent have HIV/Aids.

Dlamini
has himself suffered the hardships that are portrayed in many articles about
the so-called developing countries. But as with many others like him who are
dismayed with the lack of freedom and socio-economic justice in Swaziland and
abroad, he has chosen to keep fighting back.

He grew
up the rural areas, where the vast majority survives at the mercy of the King’s
chiefs, many of food aid from the UN. He was tortured and spent nearly four
years in prison awaiting trial for a crime he didn’t commit, because he is a
member of banned political party PUDEMO. And he has had to flee his native
country, fearing for his life, after he held a speech demanding democracy and
social change in a Swaziland.

Expensive
persecution
From his life in exile, on a scholarship programme at the University in Bergen,
where he is completing a Master’s degree in Public Administration, Bheki
Dlamini is keen to help keep the dream of a free and democratic Swaziland alive
that is the main purpose of PUDEMO, the political party and movement he belongs
to. Regardless of the increasing pressure that the state in putting on the
movement.

– Since
the famous Treason Trial of PUDEMO in 1990, our leaders and members have been
subjected to all forms of persecution from the state, ranging from arrests,
detentions, beatings and torture. The cost of legal fees is escalating and
crippling the movement, which is often unable to cover all its arrested
members, says Bheki Dlamini.

This
means that many activists and potential activists become afraid to challenge
the regime, not least because of the debilitating and increasing cost of legal
fees, bail money, counselling for torture victims and lack of support for the
families of imprisoned activists.

– The
world can contribute towards the creation of a sustainable legal assistance
structure for activists, ensure bail money for torture victims is available,
and support the families of members arrested or killed by the regime. This
would mean that activists had less to lose in fighting for democracy, says
Bheki Dlamini.

The
importance of organisation and education
Another problem, according to Dlamini, is that of the development of
intellectual and organisational skills of members of the democratic movement,
in a country where the King controls the education system and news outlets, and
is reducing the number of scholarships given and dismissing activists from
university.

– We need
these skills now, in the struggle for democracy, and in a future democratic
Swaziland. Students are forced out of high school or tertiary institutions
because of their activism, he says.

He
suggests that these students can receive scholarships to study abroad, like he
is. He also suggests that exchange programmes can be put in place with
organisations abroad that help activists learn basic organisational skills in
regard to fundraising, campaigning, organisational strengthening and research
on Swaziland, of which there is preciously little available.

Bypassing
censorship
But to be able to develop intellectual and organisational capacity, as well as
credible research, Swazis and people abroad need to get the full picture of
what is happening in Swaziland. And they aren’t getting it at the moment,
Swazis because of a censored and self-censoring press. People abroad because
Swaziland is not at all extensively covered in the (mainstream) press.

One way
of doing this is through culture and art. Both areas that have been
appropriated as used politically by the King and his regime, to equate
nationalism and “Swaziness” with the monarchy and keep the population in line.

– We need
to strengthen our cultural activism, with theatre, poetry and music, and urge
our international partners to host cultural events outside Swaziland. And we
need to use online newspapers and radio broadcasts set up abroad, that can be
disseminated unhindered, says Dlamini.

Another
useful way of informing people abroad about the plight of people in Swaziland
is by organising lectures, seminars or protests in front of Swazi embassies or
consulates.

Or by
organising film screenings abroad with films such as the one about Bheki or
others that scratch beneath the surface of political Swaziland. The success of
the Danish-produced documentary about Bheki, that has been shown
on national television in Scandinavia and won and been nominated for several
international awards, proves the effect of this.

– If
Swazi activists could be provided with and trained in using video cameras or
smartphones, as well as in making such films, the visual nature of a
documentary is an effective way of marketing our struggle both at home and
internationally. The media is deeply censored by the regime, so such
initiatives provide an alternative platform to voice people’s suffering, says
Bheki Dlamini.

Isolate
the regime
Finally, Bheki Dlamini sees no way around actual boycotts and travel bans against
the regime by governments, organisations and individuals around the world. This
was after all what helped neighbouring South Africa’s democratic movement rid
itself of the country’s apartheid regime.

– Travel
bans on the King and his cohorts would have a huge impact on the regime,
helping to undermine its legitimacy both inside and outside Swaziland, says
Dlamini.

He also
suggests that student councils, trade unions, churches or political parties
could organise business, cultural or sports boycotts or campaigns. Or that
tourists boycotted cultural events that are used to prop up the monarchy.

According
to Dlamini, these include so-called cultural events such as the annual Umlanga
(“Reed”) Dance and the Incwala ceremony.

Or
companies where the King has invested what is nominally public money, but which
is in effect used for his personal benefit, such as the Royal Swazi Sugar
Corporation, the Royal Swazi Sun Group, the largest hotel group in Swaziland, a
variety of shopping malls, Swazi SAB breweries, Parmalat Milk and Cheese
Processors and telecommunications company Swazi MTN.

– So as
you can see, there is plenty you can do, as a government, organisation or
individual that will make a significant difference. Both for members of the
movement fighting at great personal risk for democracy and socio-economic
justice, but also for the many poor Swazis who dare not risk involving
themselves in the struggle for fear of losing what little they have, Bheki
Dlamini concludes.

Bheki
Dlamini is the President of the Swaziland Youth Congress, the youth wing of the
banned People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).

“Swaziland – Africa’s last
monarchy”, a documentary film about Bheki Dlamini by award-winning Danish
investigative journalist Tom Heinemann, was shown on Danish, Swedish and
Norwegian national television in 2016. It was nominated for several awards at
international film festivals, and won the main prize and the prize for best
short documentary at the ‘A Film for Peace’-festival in Italy.